TEACHERS:
Included in this program is an audience discussion guide — Here is an excerpt
AUDIENCE DISCUSSION GUIDE
Play dialogues provide answers to this sample list of historical questions.
What event in the life of Malcolm X changed his views? What was the result of his change?
How was Martin Luther King released from jail in Birmingham?
Who was the ‘Queen of Gospel’? (Hint: she was the first to have a radio show.)
The person with 80 years of experience fighting for civil rights received the country’s two highest honors – The Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Who was it?
Who was the first woman pictured on United States currency?
What three great speeches were quoted in the play?
How was Martin Luther King inspired to add his words, “I have a dream” to his speech in Washington?
How many attended this speech and how many were white?
President Lincoln had a premonition of his assassination – what was it?
One of the African-American leaders in the play had a white grandfather and a father who believed that all slaves should return to Africa. Who was it? What organization was formed in this country with the same belief?
The play recounts three presidents who were assassinated – who were they? What character in the play was alive for all three?
What five American presidents survived assassination attempts?
How many were enslaved from Africa and where were most of them taken?
What is the difference between being a slave and being enslaved?
How were Martin Luther King and Malcolm X different in their approaches to attain civil rights for African-Americans?
Who formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference?
Which character worked for the passage of the 14thadmendment? Why did this person abandon the effort after it was passed?
Which African-American was the first of his race to enter Harvard? He did not enter as a freshman; what was his level of admission?
Who worked directly with Eleanor Roosevelt during their lifetime?
Who helped Martin Luther King pay the fees for bailing his followers out of jail and many other bills in the civil rights struggle?
Lincoln achieved the goal of freeing the slaves by the Civil War, but it was not his original goal. What was his original goal?
Who was one of the first African-American singers to achieve international fame?
How was the education of Susan B. Anthony different from other children of her era?
What event began the civil rights movement?
Who formed the NAACP?
Both Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King fought for the rights of African-Americans. What was the biggest difference in their struggles? What was the most tragic similarity?
Which African-American leader wrote enough books to fill his own library?
One of the play’s characters received over 40 Honorary Doctorates during their lifetime. Who was it?
Who began the Women’s State Temperance Union. Why was the main motivation for doing this?
Who were the two Quakers in the play?
Lincoln once compared the cost of the Civil War to the cost of sending all those enslaved back to their homes in Africa. What was the comparison?